Republicans need to abandon Trump to save the Party

Submitted by Dave (United States), Nov 10, 2020 at 19:38

I worry that Trump's recalcitrance will also do great harm to the Republican Party. He has to realize that there are principles, causes and entities that are more important than he is. In his supreme egotism, I'm afraid that Trump is besmirching the good name of our Party, and that recovery may be a long way off. I shuddered when he won the nomination in 2016, and now it looks like my worst fears are being realized.

In John Bolton's book, one can read the sorry tale of a shallow-minded, mercurial and conceited individual who was put in a position that required far more intellect and tact than he possessed. That's not to say that Trump lacked any good instincts, and, despite not being well read or well educated, or maybe because of it, he had many solid and creative ideas on parrying threats to America and it allies. We owe him great thanks for his efforts to protect our borders, to rebuild our military, to make NATO deadbeats pay up and forge peace agreements in the Middle East that have broken worn shibboleths that hampered past progress and will doubtless hamper it once again. His instincts on China's dishonest dealing and desire to make fairer trade agreements were salutary. Best of all, he rightly called Bush to account for our wasteful over-involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the negative side of the ledger, his betrayal of the Kurds by green-lighting Erdogan's aggression in Syria was ignorant, naive and callous.

In an ideal world, Trump's good deeds would be carried on and amplified, but alas, his eccentricities threaten to cancel out his achievements and bring us back to square minus one. What a shame.

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